An ongoing look at the people, places and machines of the worlds most demanding open road race.

Monday, March 19, 2007

My ass has memory

Almost from the day I began designing this car I had a good idea what kind of seats I wanted to put in it but the more research I have done and discussions with other teams who have made the trip gave me doubts. Then I began asking myself, why would I build a car designed to go all out for thousands of miles and then strap my butt into a $200 seat? God only knows I have done it before and typically it's me telling my drivers, "Just shut the hell up and drive the damn car." But now it's my butt so I decided there's no time like the present to upgrade. Little did I know just one of these seats cost as much as some guys pay for an entire car and then I need one for Jon the navigator.

The seats I have chosen are FIA rated seats built by RACETECH one of the top rated racing seats in the world. Not only did I chose a great seat but in fact one built with Kevlar/Carbon Fibre and suede patches and well as head restraints which is going to be required in most race cars later this year anyway. Not only will the special padding memorise my beautiful posterior with it's special "memory" foam but it will give great comfort whether we are racing or driving on transit stages for a day at a time. Like I always say... There's nothing better than a well rested butt to stand on the podium.

2 comments:

Gary Your ass is going to appreciate a good seat. In our car I got 2 seats with air ride suspensions which really helped especially when you hit an unseen tope. We let the air out during speed sections and filled them up during transit. One thing to try to do also is get the exhaust as close to the frame as possible.Quite a few had to get exhaust repairs due to the topes. We found when you saw a large group of people standing next to the road on both sides it means tope and slow down quick.

When I won the Mexican Gran Prix in 1999 I ran a straight exhaust and if you have never heard a Mazda rotary motor with no muffler you have no idea what LOUD is. Honest to God, it's louder than a double-A fueler. The Mexican spectators simple loved it.